The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-04-29


picked chicken couldn't a ben no
barer thin them rocks on the bottom
was. The creek had fall o. more'n
twenty foot to the miled, an even in
low water went down by thar, on its
way to the river three miled below, like
a peeled hemlock log down roll way,
an thar she were, arter all dem rains,
dry and empty from bank to bank.
Peleg. / were skeert, an TUX to trem-
bin wuss thin a hungry dog at day
light on a frosty mornin'. / thOrt the
world were comm to an end right thar
and then. Poorly soon I got stiddy
enough to look up the geek, an then
were skeert wuss'n ever, fer bout a
quarter of a miled away, in that direc-
ton, thar were the creek agoin' up
stream ez fast ez it could tearl Coin
right up that bic grade o. twenty foot
to the miled, Peleg like a train o.
keers Wen / see that l list Topped
right down and waited fer the 'arth-
quakes and Gabriel to come follerin'
along, acrackin' an atootin'. 1 laid
thar awhile, but they didn't neither on
'em come, an the creek KEEP aclimbin'
up to ards its headwaters zif it'd ben sent
fer to come back hum an hadn't no
time to spare gettin' thar 1t were
moyin' back ards in a flood more n
thirty foot high, ez nigh ez / could
jedge from SEEM the gable eend of it,
and poorly soon 1 noticed th't tn were
a heap o. cOmmotion on the edge of it.
'''Wall, says to myself, gittin' up
onter my feet, tn can't be nothin' to
hurt Teller in a flood th't's dom its
best to run away from him like that
says l, AN so guess I'll quit waitin'
for Gabriel an the earthquakes says
I, AN II jist start arter that creek an
I see w ats a ailin' on it to make it go
an cut up that way says 1.
$50 away dug en- tight ez my legs'd
carry me, but the creek had got such
start o me that it tuck me n good half
hour fore 1 ketched up with it. An
ez soon ez I did ketch up with it, my
son, l see to wunst wat were ailin' on
it. Ye must know, to git the hang o.
this, Peleg, th't suckers starts fer the
creeks on the fust high water tn comes
in the spring, an th't they gether to-
gether by the boat load at the mouths
of creeks waitin' fer the flood th't tells
'em things is ready fer 'em up the
creek, an then up they go. That had
ben an Onusu1 good season for suckers
/ to winter over in, an they had waxed
an crowd fat, an gethered in such
uncommon big crowds, th't wen they
started in at the mouth o SlOplck
creek that ninth day O April, they Jest
damned the hull durn course o. the
strefm, an fer a time it had been nip
an tuck ez to witch ID hef to stop, the
creek or the suckers. But in them days
suckers had vim an push in 'em.
These fellers at the mouth o. Sloplick
had started to git up that creek, an
'twan't their fault, b gosh, if it
couldn't furnish water enough, with
all the rain 1t d had fer a week past,
fer 'em to wiggle up on; so they jis put
their shoulders to the wheel, an at it
they went, an showed the rushin' flood
of OF Sloplick right back with 'em,
pilin' it up in a wall thirty foot high,
an keepin' her a movin' back so fast,
steep ez the grade were, th't she
couldn't git no footholt, an had to go.
So, of course, ev'ry thing were left
high an dry ahind that pushin' army
o. suckers. an natur' in them parts
were lookin' queer.
"Peleg, Wen 1 ketched up to that
retreatin' creek, nothin' could be seen
on the face o. that high wall o. water
but shouts, an tails, an fins, an backs,
an bellies o. suckers. They was piled
on one another from the bed o. the
creek to the top o. the flood pushin'
II, = l.,
ball a rollin'. / see w at the hull bust
ness meant to wunst, an l pitched
right in to do some o. the tallest sucker
tishin' th't were ever heerd on along
Sloplick creek. 1 chucked away my
pole an duv inter that bank o.
suckers an jist went to minin'
fish by the ton. They KEEP me
on a dead run to keep up with EN-,
they was h'istin' that stream uT
hin so fast, but grabbed an clawed
right an left, an throw'd suckers out
on the bank by the wagon load.
strung suckers along the banks fer &
miled, an still the flood went a rollin
up hill ez easy ez piekin' up sticks
The headwaters o. Sloplick creek wa:
in a swamp almost on the top o. Rooby
Ridge. Ez were runnin' along ahinC
that sucker bank all of a student ?
struck me that if nothin' happened t.
stop 'em, them suckers'd shove tn,
creek clean through the swamp, the
way they was goin', and push her OF
over the ridge. an then she'd &c
hellytehoOt down t'Other side an wipe
, Slaycrop's clearing often the face o
creation quicker'n lightnin' could mel
a tub of butter. / were bound to SEE
the fun, an if suckers wasn't the tim
idest an skeeriest critters th't swims
that fund come TO pass.
1T had happened. sonny, th't only
the day afore this high OF sucker fish
3 in o. mine, I had considered it a leetlC
| piece o. duty 1 owed to the community
3 to pitch inter Shadrack Jamberry, oil
3 Poke Jamberry's boy, an lam him the
e properest kind. Consistently he had ;
3 grudge agin me. He lived clus to tn,
3 creek, nearly two miled above ou
I place, at the Fiddler's Elbow Bend
This bend were so sharp th't ez me an
: the suckers an the creek were comm
$ to ards the bend l see Shadrack stand
t in on the bank, an he see me. Tn
{ Want nothin' selfish about me, so
I hollered to Shadrack to show him tn
e I didn't hev no hard feelin's, to com,
back an foller the circus, an lay in
stock o suckers agin coon famine
I But Shadrack want of a meek an fol
givin' natur like me, an so instid o
I takin' the olive branch / offered. h,
2 grabs up a couple o big stuns an
r chucks 'em in the water ahead o. m,